Epa Develops Cleanup Plan For Revere Site

April 09, 1993|by JOSEPH MCDERMOTT, The Morning Call

Final decisions on the best way to clean up a Superfund toxic waste site at the old Revere Chemical Co. could be made by mid-summer, Environmental Protection Agency representatives told Nockamixon Township residents yesterday at a town meeting.

Patrick R. Anderson, southeast Pennsylvania section chief for EPA, said a proposed remedial action plan outlining the cleanup methods and alternatives will be ready for public discussion by late May or June. The EPA will then hold a public meeting and accept public comment before making the final decision, but Revere project manager Ruth V. Rzepski said that decision usually comes about a month after the public meeting.

Alternatives include removing the majority of the contaminants from the site, controlling their spread in soil and nearby groundwater supplies and placing a soil or artificial cover over the contaminated areas to prevent further damage.

Anderson also said that the EPA, in conjunction with either the state or local government, will hold some type of control over the site for at least 30 years after the cleanup is completed but the operation and management of the site will be handled by the current owners or "potentially responsible parties," such as current or former owners who may have played a role in the original contamination of the site.

EPA crews have already removed several storage drums found buried on the site and have conducted tests to determine how extensive the contamination is and how far it has spread. Rzepski said the soil contains harmful amounts of many metals, including copper, beryllium and chromium.

Local residential wells have been tested but found safe, she said.

"We are looking at a limited amount of treatment in the groundwater. What is the biggest threat out there is on the surface," Rzepski said.

Revere Chemicals processed acid and metal wastes in the 1960s and the company was shut down by a federal judge after a nearby stream was contaminated. The former owner then abandoned the site, leaving waste-filled lagoons and drums filled with toxic materials.

Cleanup efforts were started by the state in 1970 and the site was taken over by federal officials in 1984, when several drums of chromic acid were removed and some toxic sludge was excavated.

Approximately 25 acres of the 111-acre site is considered contaminated, the EPA officials said. The remainder of the land may be able to be used but the only uses for the contaminated areas, after the cleanup, would be types that would not involve soil disturbance.